What Is Social Media Optimization? [VIDEO]

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Transcription

Hi, I’m Kaila, with Vertical Measures. I’m an account development manager here. Today’s question is, “What is social media optimization?” Social media optimization refers to the optimization of a website or elements of a website, and its content for mass social consumption. So what does that mean?

Social media optimization really is looking at your website from the eye of social media consumption. So trying to figure out what element on your site could potentially be optimized better for social media. How is that individual product page going to get shared through social media? How might an email be shared through Facebook; or how might a content piece be shared through Facebook or Twitter? Looking at an element on your site and determining how you might be able to use social media to optimize your site a bit better to get more traffic or conversions potentially, from social channels.

So there are a few things that you can do to provide social media optimization for your website. Things like adding sharing buttons to a content piece might be one element. Or we might go a little bit further, requiring some creative thought in developing a true headline that’s going to be compelling for a social audience. So what does social media allow you to do? It allows you to drive traffic, conversions, and allows you to engage with your customers and your prospects.

SMO is very similar to SEO, and there are quite a few different ways. So keywords and on-page elements are still very important. Meta titles, descriptions, H1 tags are actually available on social profiles. Right-clicking and viewing source will allow you to see those elements. Use keywords and optimization techniques in those areas, just as you would with SEO. Additionally focusing on quality over quantity is important.

Try not to add too many sharing buttons to an individual page — that might be too much. Additionally, driving traffic is the overall goal just as it is with a lot of SEO activities. Think about traffic when you’re optimizing for social media. Additionally, links can be used as a metric of success. Multiple retweets are initiating multiple no-follow links, social links. So look for these potential opportunities as ways to use elements of SEO and SMO together.

How do you get started? So here are some best practices: stay mindful of SEO best practices, just as you would with on site SEO. Don’t use too much keyword stuffing. Try to look at your SMO from the perspective of the end user, just as you would with SEO. Look for ways to give your audience more social access. There are many ways you can do this. You can use third party tools. You can add Open Graph to your site, so your users can sign in using Facebook or Twitter. Those are definitely options as well. Rewards social actions, so if someone retweets you, thank them. If someone Likes your page, call them out and say thank you. Show your audience that you reward those social actions. That in of itself could be a social media optimization technique.

Lastly, start today. It’s definitely never too late to start SMO. Think about your website from the perspective of an end user, how might they engage with your website through social channels. Provide them with the tools that it might take to use those social actions on your website with your content, with your site, to help provide SMO benefits for you.